Adam Chodzko
The green, the flow, the path of the game
Around the borders of the Sunken Garden are trees and shrubs that define the boundary between the outside world beyond the garden, carefully containing it. This small band of densely vegetated zone is also a space where children have developed, through play, a complex tracery of narrow ‘unofficial’ paths that go between plants and under low-hanging branches. Previous play has produced the paths offering new visiting children a clear invitation as to where to play and therefore what play is possible. Their new play then continues this mapping, re-marking and re-tracing to create a tight matrix of routes on the earth. The best game is the first game; hide and seek. And, best of all, the entire game of chase is mostly hidden from adults (and the over 4’ tall). The nature of each plant, its precise position in the garden, its form, smoothness, or prickliness, the density of its foliage, its capacity to cast dark shadows to hide in, all require the players to quickly adapt their fast physical movements in relation to each. Unconsciously they develop sophisticated plant knowledge through rapid responses to sight and touch. Adam was shown by a group of children how they accomplish these plant related movements and has passed this knowledge on through drawing, a video and a proposition as to where this knowledge might lead us.
Biography
Recent and current exhibitions include; Estuary Festival 2021, The Botanical Mind – Camden Art Centre, Towner International – Towner Eastbourne, Being Human – Wellcome Collection, Televistas – More Than Ponies, Die Sonne does not shine like Słońce – Trafostacja Sztuki, Szczecin, Poland.
Since 1991 Chodzko has exhibited extensively in international solo and group exhibitions including: Tate Britain; Tate, St Ives; Raven Row, London; Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (MAMBo); The Benaki Museum, Athens; Athens Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, Venice Biennale; Royal Academy, London; Deste Foundation, Athens; PS1, NY; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Kunstmuseum Luzern etc. Commissions include: Creative Time, New York, The Contemporary Art Society, Wellcome Trust, Frieze Art Fair, and Hayward Gallery.
Awards include the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art – New York, AHRC Research Fellowship and DACS Art360. Chodzko’s work is in the collections of the Tate, The British Council, The British Film Institute, The Arts Council, APT, Auckland City Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Society Collection, The Creative Foundation, Frac Languedoc-Rousillon, GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin, Grizedale Arts, MAMBo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Plains Arts Museum, North Dakota, USA, Saatchi Collection, South London Gallery, Towner Gallery Eastbourne, Wellcome Trust, and international private collections.
Adam Chodzko is based in Whitstable, Kent.
Credits
Camera assistant: Seth Barnard Chodzko
Actors: Agatha Lewis Bonilla, Olivia Gorry, Mohammad Kanjo, Mirra Kanjo, Harley Wraight, Lottie Wraight, Florence Hasted, Elizabeth Cadge, Freya Rye, Emma Cheasley, Sebastian September
Additional voices: Open School Young Associates Holly Hockley, Daniella Jasper, Eridanus Kyren, Sam, Dan Smith, Zoe Warner, Huw Williams
